Where's All That Jazz, anyway?

It has been a while since anyone actually saw *much* of Jazz. She's been sailing to and fro with Mifa, and aside from when people force her to stop and rest, or stop and eat, or stop and ... talk (ew), she has been hard to get a hold of. She's always on the move, going here and going there and getting herself lost in the big bad world right up until its time to set sail again.

And then she does.

Right now, she's found herself a rise of coast that overlooks the ocean -- the kind of place one might build a lighthouse in a more advanced world for all the reefs that are surely in the water.

Not out here, though, and not right now.

But there she is, seated on a rock she's paintakingly rolled into place (if the trails are anything to go by), where she's sketching the cliffside and landscape carefully, with great deliberation (and her tongue sticking out between her teeth) with a bit of charcoal.

It's not *bad*, exactly, but it's still a fairly amateur effort. What talent she has for maps doesn't necessarily translate immediately to landscaping vistas.

Still, it's not *bad*.

    "Hi Jazz. Whatcha doin'?"

    It isn't clear how she does it. Uta manages to just... /be/ next to Jazz, despite this being a completely open space and there being nothing that can hide her arrival. And yet, she's there without warning.

    Seems like she's going more and more sneaky shadowy spriggan each passing day.

    "Oooh, pretty," she comments, one of her fingers shooting out of her fist to point at the picture in progress. "You know what would make that sketch even better? A lighthouse. That's the perfect setting for one."

"..."

That is the response from Jazz. She does not even look at Uta. There's just a slight shoulder slump and the curling of her toes back through the holes in her adorable shoes.

"Yeah, maybe," she acknowledges, tiredly. She nearly dropped her charcoal, honestly.

    "Jazz, you okay?", Uta asks with genuine concern, and following a policy of 'trust but verify', she also runs a medical inspect on her to check for any status effect. The holes in the shoes are not lost on her. "...if you want you can have the maid outfit I somehow found out I mysteriously had on after going to eat at Gwen's. Its shoes are shining new." She frowns. "The game must be glitched or something, every time I go eat at Gwen's, at some later point in the day I find out a new outfit has mysteriously appeared in my inventory and I'm somehow already wearing it. I have no idea of how that happens. Do you think Carmina Gadelica is starting to glitch like Ezzo, Jazz?"

Fatigued and malnourished. That's what Jazz has going for her right now, along with her Yuugen status, of course, so all is as it ought to be expected.

"No, I don't think it's glitching," she answers, after a momentary pause. "I think it's Gwen's power." She nods, solemnly, and the returns to her charcoal sketching.

"Just thought I'd walk about some while waiting for Mifa's ship to finish refitting. We're getting close, I think."

    Uta reacts by standing still, in awe. "Gwen is amazing. I wish I could have such cool powers myself. I mean, not /that/ specific one... just... you know, a cool unique power." She moves to sit next to Jazz, and propping her head up with one hand, elbow resting on her knees, she asks, "Who's Mifa? And... getting close to what?", while her other hand flicks her menu open, and navigates through its options.

"She's a Lander. Helped make the astrolabe. Kept running into her and apparently she's important as Landers go in the Zorah clan, whatever that is." Jazz hasn't quite worked out the intricacies of Lander society yet.

"We are testing the astrolabe but she has looking for something."

    "Do you know what, exactly Or... just something?", asks Uta, while the final motion is performed and a neatly folded maid outfit shimmers into existence next to her. It will be a bit large for Jazz, but that's what the first menu-equipping is for, right?

    "I also got you some food..." More finger flicking and menu navigation. "It's my favourite food, actual soggy crackers!"

"Oh, thanks" says Jazz, absently. The uniform is eyed. Why does it look so much like her's?! Is Uta stalking her? Probably.

More charcoal scratching on parchment.

"Some kind of old temple, lost out there on the edges of the region, I guess. Thought to bring good fortune to those who travel to it."

    "We need all the good fortune we can get," is all Uta replies, serious.

    There is silence.

    "Good Fortune which probably means the game will set some variables somewhere and adjust the weights in its algorithms to cause more favorable outcomes in our actions."

    She turns her head to look straight at the Undine, probably her profile, giving their current sitting side-by-side. "Do you ever feel like a puppet in this world, Jazz, with something or someone larger than us pulling our strings and leading us to believe we still have a semblance of free will?"

    She frowns for a moment, and then shakes her head, "Wait, no, that metaphor isn't a perfect fit in your case. You're more the dress-up doll type. Please adjust accordingly."

"We were all prisoners of brain chemistry before. We had instincts. Still do, actually so it's not really that different, is it? I'm choosing to ignore the rest of your remarks." Jazz scratches a bit of reef into place on her parchment. It's servicable.